Some General Notes on Invention, Imagination... and Fiction

Resumo

The purpose of these notes is to present in a very general way the problematic in which the texts gathered for this edition of the Revista de Filosofia da Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto are located. To this end, the notions of invention, imagination and fiction are briefly presented, mainly based on the reflections of Fernando Gil and Paul Ricœur, which allow us to broaden the initial questions that motivated the call for articles. Thus, at first, with a Kantian inspiration, the enigma of imagination is approached from the point of view of the relationship between invention and the problems existing in various fields of enquiry (scientific, philosophical and artistic). Then, starting from the philosophical ambivalence towards imagination and the spontaneity of mental images, some ethical, aesthetic and political questions are formulated, thanks to which ontological tensions inherited from Plato are analysed. If, on the one hand, poetic images and imagination are simulacra and shadows, on the other, they also allow for the vision and inspiration that reveal enthusiasm and are indispensable to poetic creation. The third part, dedicated to the notion of fiction as creative imagination expressed in works, brings together arguments to get away from the Platonic condemnations of mimesis. It emphasises the intrinsic relationship between the creativity of the imagination and the creativity of language, pointing to the semantic innovation characteristic of poetry, the arts and the scientific discovery.

Keywords: invention, imagination, research, inspiration, human creativity.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21747/21836892/fil42a1